Thames Water Measuring Biodiversity Net Gain

Transcription

1 Thames Water Measuring Biodiversity Net Gain Rosemary Waugh Thames Water Dr Joe Franklin - AECOM

2 Our current biodiversity programme 253 of our sites as Sites of Biodiversity Interest e.g. have rare orchids present 12 of our sites are SSSIs; five AONBs within catchment Directly manage five nature reserves; 22 managed by our leaseholders Site Enhancements for Biodiversity and Access to protect and enhance biodiversity 2

3 250+ sites of biodiversity interest... 3

4 Example - ancient woodland at Wroughton Reservoir 4

5 Example - grassland Kempton Water Treatment Works Grass cutting regime changed to support small tortoiseshell butterfly, whilst still meeting operational needs. Walton Water Treatment Works Bee orchids and array of wildflowers found all around the bank around admin building 5

6 Wild about Thames Events Raise awareness about the ecological importance of our sites Open to Thames Water staff and customers. Wild about Woodlands Volunteers coppiced woodland at Bracknell STW Wild about Butterflies. Identification workshop followed by a site survey at Winchester Wood Wild about Birds. Bird ringing demonstration by licenced experts at Swindon Lagoons 6

7 Biodiversity on sites - customers views. Customers are generally impressed by the information about Thames Water s current biodiversity strategy. Thames Water customers care about biodiversity and expect the company to take action to preserve it. Customer support for Thames Water s biodiversity plan remains high, even when presented in the context of a potential bill increase. 7 Learning about Thames Water s biodiversity plans generally makes customers more positive about the organisation.

8 Plans for New performance commitment We will invest to deliver the biodiversity net-gain target Also enhance sites for customer health & well being (wider environmental net gain) Plan to open up access to more sites 8

9 How the performance commitment will work TW ambition to quantify biodiversity and take action to increase it Biodiversity units are a tool to achieve this Calculated by the Defra Metric, using Phase 1 habitat types Relationship between habitat condition and biodiversity units 9

10 Biodiversity Net Gain Baseline Data To measure net gain - needs a baseline AECOM has previously collected Phase 1 habitat data for the 253 SBI sites, and captured this within a GIS database. This gave us access to Phase 1 habitat mapping Species lists Target notes and photographs 10

11 Biodiversity Net gain - Tool Phase 1 habitat data to biodiversity units Excel tool uses Defra metric to calculate baseline biodiversity units for each site 11

12 Measuring biodiversity AECOM have calculated biodiversity units at Thames Water s 253 key sites Thames Water are targeting a 1% increase in biodiversity units each year 5% cumulative increase by end of investment cycle Enhancement required to achieve increase may take five years or more to be quantifiable Note hedgerows measured by length rather than area 12

13 Biodiversity Net Gain Easy wins relating to improvements in condition 10 key sites identified for more intensive study in

14 Example of enhancement Hogsmill STW Before enhancement 14

15 Improvements undertaken Re-profile the landscape for better visibility of the STW from the educational visitors viewing platform. Spread 540 tonnes of low nutrient sandy loam soil to a depth of 50mm Spread of wildflower seed mixture (meadow mixture for loamy soils) at 6-8g per m2 Creation of 3 ponds to be planted with native aquatic plant species 15

16 16 During enhancement

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18 18 The vision! (Photo credit: Maydencroft Gosmoor Hill, Herts)

19 Delivering and reporting the performance commitment Identify SBI for cost-effective projects Select for biodiversity and environmental net gain Target key sites for cumulative effect Report annually Identify further sites Establish habitat bank 19

20 Thank you